Meditate
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Daily Light's Morning Reading
Praying in the Holy Ghost.—JUDE 20.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.—We . . . have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
The Spirit . . . helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.—This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.—When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.
John 4:24. -Eph. 2:18.Matt. 26:39.Rom. 8:26,27. -I John 5:14. -John 16:13.Eph. 6:18.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.”
Hosea 12:12
Jacob, while expostulating with Laban, thus describes his own toil, “This twenty years have I been with thee. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee: I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.” Even more toilsome than this was the life of our Saviour here below. He watched over all his sheep till he gave in as his last account, “Of all those whom thou hast given me I have lost none.” His hair was wet with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. Sleep departed from his eyes, for all night he was in prayer wrestling for his people. One night Peter must be pleaded for; anon, another claims his tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting beneath the cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever utter such complaints because of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have brought, if he had chosen to do so, because of the sternness of his service in order to procure his spouse—
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“Cold mountains and the midnight air, Witnessed the fervour of his prayer; The desert his temptations knew, His conflict and his victory too.” |
It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having required all the sheep at Jacob’s hand. If they were torn of beasts, Jacob must make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole. Was not the toil of Jesus for his Church the toil of one who was under suretiship obligations to bring every believing one safe to the hand of him who had committed them to his charge? Look upon toiling Jacob, and you see a representation of him of whom we read, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.”
Old Testament Chapter a Day - 2 Samuel 24
24. David Counts Fighting Men
David’s Census of Israel and Judah
24
Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”2So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.”3But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold, while the eyes of my lord the king can still see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?”4But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel.5They crossed the Jordan, and began from Aroer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.6Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon,7and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba.8So when they had gone through all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.9Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand.
Judgment on David’s Sin
10 But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”11When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,12“Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.”13So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall three years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.”14Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands.”
15 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba.16But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil, and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.17When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
David’s Altar on the Threshing Floor
18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”19Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded.20When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”22Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.23All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God respond favorably to you.”
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.25David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
New Testament in Four Years - Colossians 2:16-19
2. Freedom Through Life in Christ
16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.17These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.18Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,19and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 107:10-32
107. Psalm 107
10
Some sat in darkness and in gloom,
prisoners in misery and in irons,
11
for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;
they fell down, with no one to help.
13
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;
14
he brought them out of darkness and gloom,
and broke their bonds asunder.
15
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
16
For he shatters the doors of bronze,
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
17
Some were sick through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities endured affliction;
18
they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
19
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;
20
he sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from destruction.
21
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
22
And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.
23
Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the mighty waters;
24
they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26
They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their calamity;
27
they reeled and staggered like drunkards,
and were at their wits’ end.
28
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out from their distress;
29
he made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30
Then they were glad because they had quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
32
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.